Coach Wardisms

From: Johnny Radford

To: Dr. Scotty Portis

Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 9:55 PM

Subject: Coach Wardisms

Scotty.. I just read Jimmy Jewell Lumpkin's blog on reaching in that back pocket for that second effort.

Here are a few of my Wardisms...

If you work hard then the "cream will rise to the top".

When practice was over and the team would run sprints, Coach would holler out "milking time".

When a player would screw up he would tell the team "don't make me have to get the shoe out".

He often would tell a big lineman on the bottom of the pile in practice, "get up from there you big ole rascal".

One of my favorites was being reminded to "eat plenty of salt tablets, they're good for you". Then going out to practice later and you would be so thirsty your tongue would feel like leather.

Scotty.. Let Dr. Atkins know about these blogs. He was the team doctor for many years and I know he would enjoy reading them and having several stories to share.

When I get my thoughts together I'd like to share with all the Mustangs my remembrances about playing on the 1966 Mustang team. Your stories about playing with Stewart, Moose, Pinkley and Blankenship are great. I've got a couple of pictures of my dad, "Spider Radford" in his playing days at HHS. Spider would tell me when watching a game and someone like Lynn Stallworth had just let a pass slip off his fingertips that he could have caught that pass. Spider got his nickname from playing football and he played with Coach Ward in high school. Dad was even a coach with Mr. Robert Dilday for one year after WW II when Mr. Pudor was still gone from HHS. I've got an old HHS annual with their picture coaching the team. Ha...